The life and times of Malta Public Transport

Accidental Bus $#&%$*s

In Malta, traffic drives on the left side. In order to get into a busy round-about or across a busy intersection with no lights, it is perfectly acceptable to ease into the lane closest to your vehicle taking each centimeter slowly. Oncoming traffic either rolls right around you or at some point stops. Once one lane stops, the other lanes will usually stop long enough to let the vehicle into the round-about or across the road. It is important to understand that this is normal traffic flow. In the U.S., people will not go until both sides are clear, at least in the places I have lived and driven. (I can’t speak for the East Coast).

On this sunny and windy day, I was riding with my girlfriend who was visiting. We were going to see one of the natural wonders in Malta. There were 4 other people on the bus including the bus driver – 2 tourists and 1 Maltese. The bus came to an intersection where he needed to turn right across two lanes of oncoming traffic.Inching his way forward, the driver had made it into the second traffic lane when the oncoming vehicle hit its brakes and slammed right into the driver’s wheelhouse. The bus rocked back and forth, and no one was hurt in either vehicle. We, the tourists, didn’t know what to do; the Maltese got off the bus and went home. The tourists stayed in the bus. The Local Wardens came by, but no one was hurt, so they drove away. The tourists, all of us, got off the bus and reveled in the sun.

In the meantime, the driver of the other vehicle had called someone. She arrived in a pickup, and he drove off. He returned before the police arrived. We waited for another bus to come. It didn’t take us where we wanted to go, but dropped us off about 1.5 kilometers away from our destination. It was a beautiful walk along the coast, but still, we had missed out on a lot of touring time waiting for the bus.

A Couple of Days Later

In a separate and unrelated incident, a bus ahead of ours took a turn too tightly and sideswiped a car with the bus’ hind end. Our bus was able to go by without too much of a problem.​In the year that I was here, these are the first accidents I have seen the buses involved in. Considering the size of the roads and the attitudes of many Maltese drivers (American drivers do not have a monopoly on rude, stupid, and downright dangerous), the bus drivers here have a job that requires skill and constant vigilance. There are those who drive their buses while paying attention to their mobile phones, harassing young foreign women or pull over to harass riders they think are breaking some space barrier. However, for the most part, riders should be impressed with the driving skills.